Mogsy’s Bookshelf Roundup: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads
Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every other weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I round up what I’ve read since the last update and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.
Received for Review
I’ve been working hard to rein in my book requests this year, but apparently I have not been showing as much restraint when it comes to electronic galleys. In a perfect storm of email invitations, auto-approvals, and every single one of my NetGalley/Edelweiss requests that have been hanging in limbo forever suddenly deciding to come in all at once this week, my digital review pile appears to have exploded! Whoops. Meanwhile, books in the mail have been mostly surprise arrivals, but they all look so good! Hard to fight against the excitement though, even as Mount TBR grows another few feet; my enormous gratitude to the authors and publishers for the months of great reading ahead of me!
Alcatraz Vs. The Evil Librarians and The Scrivener’s Bones by Brandon Sanderson – This might be the only series left by Sanderson that I haven’t tried yet. Until now Alcatraz has always managed to elude me, but this year they’re being re-issued by Starscape/Tor Books and I pounced on the opportunity to review these beautifully illustrated new hardback editions. I already read the first one, and loved it — hilarious adventurous middle grade madness! My thanks to the publisher!
The Last Days of Magic by Mark Tompkins – I was so excited when a finished copy of this book arrived, courtesy of Viking. I’ve been highly anticipating this gorgeous historical fantasy debut about goddesses, mad kings, druids and faerie magic.
UFO Hunters Book Two by William J. Birnes – Until this one arrived from Tor, I had no clue there was even a UFO Hunter book, let alone two! It’s billed as an official companion to the History Channel show, which I’m only vaguely familiar with. I may pass this on to my husband, who loves this stuff.
Nebula Awards Showcase 2016 edited by Mercedes Lackey – My thanks to Pyr for brightening up my day with another awesome Nebula Awards Showcase collection!
The King of Fear by Drew Chapman – Surprise arrival from Simon & Schuster earlier in the week; although it’s not my usual genre, I was intrigued. Chapman brings his extensive experience in film and television writing to this novel of global espionage and cyber terrorism. I’ll be keeping this one in mind for when I feel like a good thriller.
Invaders: 22 Tales from the Outer Limits of Literature edited by Jacob Weisman – When book mail arrived from California, I was thrilled to discover it was this sci-fi anthology from Tachyon Publications! From aliens to nanotech, this wild collection features all manner of science fiction and beyond. I’m not even a big reader of short stories, but I do want to read this one.
Good Girls by Glen Hirshberg – I’ve wanted to read Glen Hirshberg for a while now, and I finally got my wish this week! My thanks to Tor Books for sending along a finished hardcover of this emotionally hard-hitting supernatural horror. Keep an eye out for my review which will be posted on release date!
Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan – A retelling of A Tale of Two Cities?! Um, YES PLEASE. All resistance pretty much went out the window the moment I heard that pitch. With thanks to Clarion Books (NetGalley).
Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay – Do you even need a reason to be excited for Guy Gavriel Kay? I mean, other than it’s Guy Gavriel Kay? Didn’t think so! With thanks to NAL (NetGalley).
Roses and Rot by Kat Howard – I literally did a dance for joy when Saga Press started listing titles at NetGalley last week. They auto-approved me too, which could have been really bad for my review pile because I’m excited about practically every single one of their titles. I was able to restrained myself and only requested Roses and Rot…for now. Can’t wait to dive into this dark twist on a fairy tale.
The Immortals by Jordanna Max Brodsky – I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of the audio edition last week. IT. IS. AMAZING. I lost a chunk of a day to this audiobook while I was vacuuming the house and I must have done several rooms twice without even realizing it. That’s how thoroughly hooked I was. I’m sure you’ll be hearing me rave all about it next week, which is hopefully when I’ll have my review up. My thanks to Hachette Audio!
The Edge of Worlds by Martha Wells – Evidently the start of a new series about the Raksura, even though it is technically the fourth book in the sequence. I’ve never actually read a Raksura novel (just the short stories collections) so this might be a good place for me to jump on board. With thanks to Night Shade Books (Edelweiss).
Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay – Earlier this month I read A Head Full of Ghosts and it was definitely one of those mind-blowing “I NEED to read more by this author right the hell NOW” experiences. My thanks to William Morrow (Edelweiss).
In the Shadow of the Gods by Rachel Dunne – An epic fantasy about a group of mortals standing up against a pair of vengeful gods? This sounds interesting! And I’ll never turn down a dark fantasy. With thanks to Harper Voyager (Edelweiss).
Fellside by M.R. Carey – eARC, with thanks to Orbit (NetGalley). I loved The Girl with All the Gifts and I was very excited when I found out about Carey’s new novel. The publisher description is a bit vague, but I’ve heard whisperings that it’s a ghost story…
The Days of Tao by Wesley Chu – I was actually a beta reader for this book, and I’m looking forward to see what has changed in the final version. This short novella is an action-filled story about Cameron Tan and contains some bridge elements that will lead into The Rise of Io, Chu’s next quasing series. With thanks to Subterranean Press (NetGalley).
The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis – Psychological literary thriller set in a post-apocalyptic wilderness. What’s not to like? I’ve eyed this one for a while, and now that the publisher has revealed their cover, I decided to request. My thanks to Crown (NetGalley).
Reviews
Here are all my reviews since the last update, gathered together and listed here for your convenience and viewing pleasure. We’re all over the board in terms of ratings, but on the whole I’d say I had a great first half of February.
Chains of the Heretic by Jeff Salyards (5 of 5 stars)
The Damned by Andrew Pyper (4.5 of 5 stars)
Star Wars: Dark Disciple by Christie Golden (4.5 of 5 stars)
The Death of Dulgath by Michael J. Sullivan (4 of 5 stars)
A Criminal Magic by Lee Kelly (4 of 5 stars)
Burning Midnight by Will McIntosh (4 of 5 stars)
Drake by Peter McLean (3.5 of 5 stars)
The Guns of Ivrea by Clifford Beal (3 of 5 stars)
Revenge and the Wild by Michelle Modesto (2.5 of 5 stars)
What I’ve Read Since the Last Update
I spent the first week of February reading a couple of humongous epic fantasy doorstoppers, so for the rest of the roundup period I indulged in some shorter, lighter reads in Urban Fantasy, Horror and Young Adult. A good mix of genres helps keep me sane. I also grabbed the Morning Star audiobook the day it came out and finished listening to it over three or four nights of workouts. I’ve been looking forward to it for so long and it was definitely worth the wait.
Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? Nothing makes me happier than sharing my love for books, so let me know what you plan on checking out. I hope you found something interesting for a future read! Until next time, see you next Roundup! 🙂
The BiblioSanctum 
Wait, the GGK was on Netgalley?! I thought I’d checked it plenty recently. Not that I’m likely to get it with region stuff, but. *crosses fingers* Looks like a great haul overall!
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Yes, its status was “wish for it!” for a while, and earlier this month it switched to “Reqest”. Crossing my fingers for you!
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Great list!
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WOW These posts make me feel like a kid given unconditional access to a candy shop!
😀
And if M.L. Carey has written another book, I’m buying this one sight unseen….
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My thoughts exactly on Carey!
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The library are getting the Sanderson ones so gotta read them
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I hope they get them. I’m glad they’re making these re-issues as I heard they were previously hard to find. Surprised it took so long, given the popularity of children’s books.
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Great haul! I haven’t heard of any of these but I hope you love them!!
Danielle @ Life With Two Boys
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I finished Morning Star in two days!!!! It was glorious!!!! Super excited to hear your thoughts on the G.G.Kay book and several of the others.
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Yeah, I burned through Morning Star in good time too. Great conclusion!
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OOoh nice haul!! Quite a few of these are new to me, but then some are very familiar! I still would like to read The Girl with all the Gifts! It’s on my kindle, so someday! Lol! Hope you enjoy all the new reads!
My STS will be up tomorrow, so stop by then if you can!
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
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Really excited to see what titles you’ll be featuring, you get the best signed books and bookish swag, and I always learn of new books 🙂
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I had the same situation with NG and EW these past few weeks, a veritable bounty of digital goodness! I keep telling myself the release dates are far off, so no problem! I just bought a copy of Morning Star this week (like many people probably did!) and I have to figure out how I’m going to fit that in. 🙂
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I know! I guess because they’re digital, it’s easier to lose control of the review pile? Whereas my physical books are a constant reminder not to let things get out of hand because I see my TBR tower on my bedside table every day 🙂 All my pending requests decided to all come in this week too, which was pretty crazy, haha.
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Definitely looking forward to your thoughts on The Immortals. That had caught my eye a while back, and based on your quick blurb it sounds like you really enjoyed it…? *hopeful*
I think you offered a few Guy Gavriel King recommendations to me a while back; they’re on my wishlist / Goodreads TBR list. And I really want to check out the Red Rising Trilogy. I was planning to buy the first book the last time I went to Barnes & Noble – but they only had the second book in stock.
Enjoy your new haul!
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I enjoyed The Immortals a LOT! I wrote the review already and it’s scheduled to be posted next week…but reading my thoughts, I don’t think I did it enough justice. It was that good. 🙂
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I thought I had a big StS post! Some amazing looking books in their (and many familiar) look forward to seeing what you think of Good Girls. I’m reading that one soon. Also, my son loved the Alcatraz books! They were out of print when he read them so were quite a pain to get ahold of. We picked up the last two when we went on vacation in England.
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Good Girls was good! But I wish I had read Motherless Child before it. It’s standalone, sure, but I still think I missed a lot by not reading the first book.
And awesome to hear about Alcatraz! I can see it being a huge hit with kids. I can’t wait until my daughter is old enough so I can give these books to her to read 🙂
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What a great stack of books. I’m looking forward to Snakewood and Fellside. I would love a copy of the Kat Howard book and I will definitely be reading Morningside very soon. Unfortunately I overfaced myself a little for February so I’m trying to be calm – I’m really trying to be calm….
Lynn 😀
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There are SO many good books in February. With every week of awesome new releases, I fall a little further behind so I know how you feel. Keep calm and keep reading 😉
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Awesome haul! UFO Hunters looks interesting. I’m also liking the look of The Last Days of Magic.
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Really looking forward to The Last Days of Magic – I have a feeling it deserves a lot more attention!
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After I saw you added In the Shadow of the Gods on Goodreads the other day, I sent an email to Harper Voyage requesting a review copy XD
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It just seemed like right up my alley! I saw that on Edelweiss and I just knew I had to request it 🙂
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wow many books I’m jealous and they’re mostly new to me so I’m curious! happy reading!
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Thanks, happy reading to you too! 🙂
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You always have the most amazing hauls Mogsy^^ Love seeing some Sanderson here and I’m planning on starting that Pierce Brown series soon! Curious to see how you’ll make out with Unhooked, The Immortals and In the Shadow of the Gods! Enjoy all these goodies and I hope your weekends going great 🙂
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The Sanderson middle grade books are HILARIOUS! Finished both books in good time because they were so humorous and fun. And I really enjoyed Morning Star, The Immortals, but was so-so with Unhooked. Too bad, I had really high hopes for it. Reviews soon! 🙂
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Oh my gosh! I want to read all of these! So excited to add them to my list. I love your reviews – honest and fun to read. Thanks for great work!
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